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OEM Parts Versus Aftermarket In Car Insurance Repairs

In the event that your car is involved in an accident and has to go in for repairs, you will more often than not find yourself faced with the decision whether to use OEM or aftermarket parts in the repair.

It is important to note that insurance companies recommend the use of aftermarket parts, which are much cheaper. Non-OEM manufacturers say that the difference between OEM parts and aftermarket parts is negligible. The result is that most insurance companies will not reimburse the repair costs when OEM parts are used. Yet where aftermarket parts are utilized, you will get a 100 per cent refund of the costs that you end up incurring. This means that when a policy hold insists on using quality OEM parts they wil only get refunded the difference it would have cost had they used non-OEM parts. This can be a huge sum of money because in many cases OEM auto parts usually cost double what non-OEM or aftermarket parts will cost you.

Manufacturers of OEM parts and other advocates of it claim that after market parts are not subject to the same rigorous crash-testing procedures that OEM parts go through. The implication is that non-OEM parts are not as safe as OEM parts. This is however contradicted by the Insurance institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) who say that repairs with aftermarket parts does not degrade the safety of an automobile in a crash.

However what everybody knows is that the use of aftermarket parts decreases a vehicle’s resale value. This will greatly concern those who plan on reselling or trading in their cars.

You will have to make the final decision on whether or not to use OEM parts for your repair. If it is a high-end vehicle you may be forced to for OEM, even if you have to foot a substantial part of the repair bill, which will not be covered by your car insurance company.